The present invention relates to systems for draining coolant from a motor vehicle and recovering the drained coolant for environmentally conscious disposal or recycling.
Periodically, it is necessary to replace the coolant in the cooling system for a motor vehicle engine. For this purpose, a stopcock is provided at the bottom of the radiator. In order to drain the system, the stopcock is opened and a radiator cap at the top of the engine is removed to allow air to enter the system braking a vacuum which would otherwise prevent the flow of coolant through the lower stopcock. For faster draining the technician often cut the lower radiator hose, when that hose was to be replaced as part of the cooling system maintenance.
Many years ago a service technician draining the radiator simply allowed the coolant to flow to a floor drain in the garage from which it entered the municipal sewer system. With increased concerns about damaging the environment, such dumping of coolant chemicals, which often contain heavy metals, into a sewer system has been prohibited. Now the service technician must place a pan beneath the stopcock in which to catch the coolant draining from the engine. The technician must then pour the coolant into a suitable container for proper disposal according to environmental protection regulations.
The coolant drains relatively slowly from the cooling system and in fact may not drain from all of the locations within the engine block. It is therefore desirable to provide a faster technique for removing the coolant from the cooling system of a motor vehicle and recovering the drained coolant for proper disposal.
In addition to having to drain the coolant to replace it during routine maintenance of the automobile, salvage yards are now also required to recover the coolant from junked motor vehicles so that the proper disposal of the coolant may be carried out. Heretofore personnel at vehicle salvage yards simply cut the lower radiator hose from the motor vehicle in order to provide a very large opening in the coolant system through which the coolant could flow. In this situation, the coolant flowed either directly onto the ground of the salvage yard or into a floor drain where it entered the sewer system. Both of these disposal techniques are now prohibited by environmental regulations. It is also important in motor vehicle recycling that the fluids be drained from the engine as rapidly as possible and allowing gravity to drain the coolant through the stopcock may be too slow to ensure that the personnel did not violate environmental regulations by continuing to sever the lower radiator hose allowing the coolant to drain onto the ground of the salvage yard.